Tomas Kral's Homework Desk: Drawerless, with Drainage

Switzerland-based designer Tomas Kral's Homework Desk is unusual: Made from cast aluminum sandwiched between two sheets of ash, it contains a sort of gutter that runs around three edges. Rather than being for drainage, it's meant to store desktop items, well, off of the desktop. For his part, he describes the wraparound as "A toolbox to store documents, objects, photos that you need or simply desire to work." No drawers necessary.

Here's a shot of an early mockup made with cardboard and particle board:

I can just about guarantee that if I owned this, the bottom of the trays would become the go-to hiding place for all of the pens, keys and other items that constantly attempt to elude me. But one thing I would like to use the desk for: It would be great to theatrically sweep everything off of your desk in anger, as when a henchman reports to you that he failed to complete some task, and then afterwards you wouldn't have to pick everything up off the floor.

sheet metal forming would be awesome for this table-
I would really love one of these, not just for the sculptured metal look (would be absolutely beautiful in stainless) I would seriously love something like this for my tabletop cnc's so I could hose off the cutting fluid like I was in a brewery

Casting seems expensive for this design. I'm curious why he didn't look into sheet metal forming. It would be a large tool, but would see ROI in short time. Perhaps he doesn't intend on making that many. Pity, it's a neat concept.